The document defines a tall building as a structure above 8 storeys or 25m within the city centre or the bay.

It's nice to see that two of my buildings are being used as examples.

It's also nice to see that they've taken examples from other parts of the world (notably Australia) and there is a continual reference to quality, particulary with regards to materials. Page 19 of the document notes that light coloured render has not weathered well and as a general rule should be avoided!!

See also page 32 of the document, which includes Park Place as an "Area of Very High Sensitivity". So maybe, that proposed student accomodation tower at Bradley Court is a non-starter.

I posted this on the thread for Central Square:http://www.news.com.au/finance/real-est ... 5f0dbb1960People in Melbourne are starting to question the effects of so many high-rise developments within their city centre. Medium-rise (below 100m) are spreading to the inner suburbs as well.

Cardiff is not anywhere near that scale yet, nor is London for that matter. But we should learn from other cities and not repeat their mistakes.

Where I think there is significant growth in London is for buildings under 150m, around typically 20 to 30 storeys for residential. In total there is close to 500 towers being planned or under construction in Greater London at the moment. That's building on a massive scale! The 150+m club in London appears to be more office-development driven, particularly in the Square Mile and down Canary Wharf.

There's no doubt that London, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester are all going tall and building at a fast rate.

It's nice that Cardiff is also going in that direction and is developing a tall building planning guidelines. I'm hoping that they do indeed stick to their own planning guidelines and place and emphasis on quality of design, quality of materials and suitable location on all future developments.

For those who don't know, the architects Denton Corker Marshall are an Australian firm with offices in London and other parts of England. Personally, I think that it's good that we are seeing international architectural firms doing work in Cardiff again. You need a mix of local and international flavour for a modern city.

My first reaction is that it looks very much like recent proposals for buildings in Manchester and London. It does look a bit bulky and I'm not sure about the materials. I can't say I'm thrilled with the design, but what I really love is the use colour and the corner glazed projections. It is quite different for Cardiff and there's no light render!

I also like the location. I was beginning to fear that this end of town was going to be a bit neglected with all the activities going on around the railway line. Viewpoint 04 looks great and it'll add two focal points for the skyline when it Custom House gets going, which will hopefully encourage further developments in between those spaces.

I don't care about the student accomodation issue. As far as I'm concerned, these student resi towers could be easily adapted for private residential (minus parking!).

Add this list to the Central Square builds, Watkin Jones towers, John Street (fingers crossed!), and this new proposal, and we've got a pretty respectable line up of developments. Even if only 50% of them ever get built, it's still going to grow the city upwards and outwards quite a bit.

Another thing to note is that the pre-application phase for this tower was almost a full year ago. I wonder how many other proposals are waiting that we don't know about...

Well, there have been tall building proposals that were put forward some time ago. Cardiff Point/ISV, an earlier version of Capitol tower and let's not forget the Glass Needle (where Central Square No. 1 is now located) were all muted around 2006. If it wasn't for the financial crash, developments in Cardiff could have taken a different direction.

Most cities see a healthy turnover of proposals, most come off but many fall away and get forgotten as financial and political circumstances change. If 50% of these proposals fail there will be others.

On that note, Cen has made a really important comment regarding this development (and the same can be said for Dolffin Quay): it’s come out of nowhere! More than that, it’s come out of nowhere with an international architect.

Park Place/Bradley Court, Central Quay, Capitol Centre, Herbert St, Capital Quarter and even the Rapport Site (when that’s redeveloped) have all leaked information into the public domain giving some indication that a development was on the cards. One can almost say they’ve been hyping up some of these schemes in the local press. But who honestly knew about this and how has it been kept quiet for over a year? What is going on with other plots around the city?

We're starting to see signature architects and a lot of foreign money invovled in schemes across the city. I was showing a European colleague around parts of Cardiff earlier in the week and my colleague was really shocked by the amount of building sites and proposals.

Howells Properties, a partnership made up of senior colleagues of Howells Solicitors, owns the building and occupies the bulk of the space.

Following its expansion in recent years, the law firm now employs about 90 staff in Cardiff. The redevelopment of its existing premises will support its relocation to "more prestigious and suitable offices" in the city."

I wonder where the funding will come for this scheme and whether or not Howells are planning a new-build for new premises or just taking space in somewhere like Central Square.

This statement was lost on me either:"Fundamentally, and in addition to the above factors, the building proposed will be of landmark quality and will raise the bar in terms of the design quality and architecture of tall buildings proposed within the city in recent years."

Whether or not you agree with their statement based upon your view on their design proposals, it is nice that these schemes are seeing a bit of competition and one-up-manship amongst designers.